Page:Historic printing types, a lecture read before the Grolier club of New York, January 25, 1885, with additions and new illustrations; by De Vinne, Theodore Low, 1828-1914; Grolier Club.djvu/45

 DUTCH TYPES. 41 (if we judge rationally) we must conclude that the Eomain Letters were Originally invented and con- trived to be made and consist of Cir- cles, Arches of Circles, and straight Lines; and therefore those Letters that have these Figures, either en- tire, or else properly mixt, so as the Course and Progress of the Pen may best admit, may deserve the name of true Shape, rather than those that have not. Besides, Since the late made Dutch Letters are so gen- erally, and indeed most deservedly accounted the best, as for their Shape, consisting so exactly of Mathematical Regular Figures as aforesaid, And for the commodious Fatness they have beyond other Let- ters, which easing the Eyes in Read- ing, renders them more Legible ; As also the true placing their Fats and their Leans, with the sweet driving them into one another, and indeed all the accomplishments that can render Letter regular and beautiful, do more visibly appear in them than in any Letters Cut by any other People : And therefore I think we may ac- count the Rules they were made by, to be the Rules of true shap'd Letters. For my own part, I liked their Letters so well, especially those that were Cut by Christophel Van Dijck of Amsterdam, that I set my self to examine the Proportions of all and every the parts and Members of 6 every Letter, and was so well pleased with the Harmony and Decorum of their Symetrie, and found so much Regularity in every part, and so good reason for his Order and Method, that I examined the big- gest of his Letters with Glasses, which so magnified the whole Letter, that I could easily distinguish, and with small Deviders measure off the size, scituation and form of every part, and the proportion every part bore to the whole ; and for my own future satisfaction collected niy Ob- servations into a Book, which I have inserted in my Exercises on Let- ' ter- Cutting. For therein I have ex- hibited to the World the true Shape of Christophel Van DijcVs aforesaid Letters, largely Engraven in Copper Plates. Whence I conclude, That since common consent of Book-men assign the Garland to the Dutch-Letters as of late Cut, and that now those Letters are reduced unto a Rule, I think the Objection is Answered; And our Master-Printers care in the choice of good and true shap'd Letters is no difficult Task : For if it be a large Bodied Letter, as English, Great-Primer and upwards, it will shew itself; and if it be small, as Pearl, Nomparel, etc. though it may be difficult to judge the exact Sym- etry with the naked Eye, yet by the help of a Magnifying-Glass, or two